Assembly adjourns session for year; cancer drugs bill sent to Senate, and a lot more

Mar. 21, 2014

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The Associated Press

MADISON — The Wisconsin state Assembly has adjourned its regular session for the year following a marathon overnight session that didn’t conclude until 4:45 a.m. Friday.

During the more than 14 hours in session that began Thursday afternoon the Assembly passed a bill designed to make oral chemotherapy drugs more affordable, limit early voting hours, and impose new requirements for people exposed to asbestos who bring lawsuits for damages.

The chemotherapy bill must be passed by the Senate or it will die.

The Assembly scrapped its plans for a school accountability bill with sanctions for failing schools. Instead, it agreed with the Senate approach that only requires that test results and other data for all schools that take taxpayer money be made public.

Assembly sends cancer drugs bill to Senate

Republicans pushed a plan through the Wisconsin Assembly early Friday to include a $100 monthly copay cap for cancer patients buying chemotherapy drugs in pill form, a change that Democrats say could put the entire bill — intended to make the drugs more affordable — at risk in the Senate.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved a version without the cap earlier this week. But Republicans in the Assembly argued that a copay cap was needed to prevent the costs from being even higher.

Democrats, who unsuccessfully tried to block the amendment, said the cap could allow insurance companies to charge a higher copay because the bill already states that the copay applied to pills be the same as intravenous treatments. IV treatments as a hospital or doctor’s office often cost only a $20 copay with insurance.

They also argued there was no need to change a bill that the Senate already passed and the governor has agreed to sign. The last chance for the bill to pass is April 1, the Senate’s only remaining session day.

“Why do you want to make it tougher for cancer patients in this state?” Democratic Minority Leader Peter Barca said during the late-night debate. “Why do you want to do less for cancer patients in this state?”

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Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, argued that without the $100 copay limit, the cost for some patients could grow even higher without the cap.

Two Republicans, Reps. Andre Jacque of DePere and Dean Kaufert of Neenah, joined Democrats in trying to turn back the amendment, but their efforts failed on a 40-54 vote. All but 13 Democrats then joined Republicans in passing the bill 75-18. Thirteen Republicans voted against it.

The bill would require that health insurance companies charge the same for chemotherapy drugs in pill form, which can be taken at home, as they do for intravenous treatments. Unlike intravenous treatments, oral chemotherapy is considered a pharmacy benefit rather than an insurance-covered medical treatment, so the pills can cost thousands of dollars a month.

During the sometimes emotional debate, lawmakers recounted stories of battling cancer both personally and with family members and friends. Debate began late Thursday night and concluded around 1:30 a.m. Friday with bill sponsor, Majority Leader Pat Strachota, saying she “pledged my honor” that the bill would pass the Senate and be signed by Gov. Scott Walker.

Senate Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald had said he would be open to voting on the bill again, not knowing what changes the Assembly might make. Walker’s spokeswoman on Thursday said he would sign the bill. There was no immediate reaction from Walker or Senate Republican leaders after the Assembly vote.

The amendment isn’t the first snag the legislation has faced. Just days before the Assembly vote, it appeared as if the bill would not come up because Republican leaders used procedural moves to bottle it up, citing opposition from a handful of lawmakers.

But after the Senate approved the bill Tuesday, pressure mounted on the Assembly to vote on the plan by the end of Thursday’s session — the final day the Assembly was meeting this year. Speaker Robin Vos and Strachota announced the deal to include the $100 copay just before the session day began Thursday afternoon.

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Insurance companies, which originally opposed the bill for fear it would raise costs, moved to being neutral with the amendment. Cancer support advocates joined with Vos at a news conference to announce their support for the bill with the copay.

Historically, intravenous treatments have been the predominant route for administering chemotherapy to fight a wide variety of cancers. While chemotherapy in pill form has been available for decades, supporters of the bill say more of the new drugs being developed are in pill form, not intravenous form.

But oral chemotherapy can cost thousands of dollars a month, while intravenous treatments at a hospital or doctor’s office often cost only a $20 copayment under a patient’s insurance policy.

Insurance companies typically view the oral drugs as a pharmacy benefit and the intravenous therapy as a medical treatment, which leads to the price disparity. Patients can often be required to pay half of the pharmacy benefit’s cost.

Strachota said the $100 copay is common in the 29 other states with similar laws and makes sense. The change won the support of groups that have been lobbying for passage of the bill for years.

If signed into law, the Wisconsin bill would take effect in January.

Assembly approves earlier campaign donations

Lobbyists could start making campaign donations to candidates for office seven weeks earlier than current law allows under a bill that has passed the state Assembly.

The bill approved early Friday morning on a 54-37 vote would allow lobbyists to start making personal donations the day candidates can circulate petitions for office, which is April 15. Under current law they can’t make any donations until June 1.

State law would continue to bar lobbyists from giving campaign donations to members of the Legislature while it is still in session.

The Senate narrowly passed the bill 17-16 earlier this month. It now heads to Gov. Scott Walker for his consideration.

Bill would change mental health governance

Control of the troubled Milwaukee mental health complex would be taken away from the county board under a bill that has passed the state Assembly.

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The measure approved early Friday morning on a 89-1 vote would transfer power to a group of medical professionals, patients and family members. Democratic Rep. Fred Kessler, of Milwaukee, voted against it.

The bipartisan proposal comes after six patients died at the facility in 2012.

In addition to creating the new board to run the facility, the bill would also require an extensive audit be done by Dec. 1 that would consider whether the state should take over operations.

The bill now goes to Gov. Scott Walker, who is expected to sign it.

Assembly votes to limit DNA collection

DNA would be collected only from people arrested for violent felonies like rape and assault under a bill that has passed the state Assembly.

The bill passed Friday now goes back to the Senate, which must pass it April 1 or it will die.

The bill makes changes to a law set to go into effect in April 2015 which requires DNA to be collected from anyone arrested on suspicion of a felony.

The DNA collected would go straight to the state crime lab, rather than be kept by local police. The Department of Justice would not be allowed to analyze the DNA until there has been a finding of probable cause or other conditions are met.

Assembly passes early voting, asbestos bills

The session included a vote to pass a bill that would limit early voting hours by disallowing it on weekends and no later than 7 p.m. in the two weeks leading up to an election.

The Assembly also passed a measure setting new requirements for people exposed to asbestos who get sick and bring lawsuits.

Republicans withdrew a proposal to impose sanctions on poor performing schools. Instead, the Assembly passed a more limited version that only requires test results and other data about all schools receiving taxpayer money to be made public.

Debate on other measures was expected to last into early Friday morning.

The bill, which falls far short of what those working on school accountability on all sides of the issue had hoped would pass, now heads to Gov. Scott Walker for his signature. Walker, who was involved with trying to come up with a more expansive bill, has indicated he would sign the measure that passed.

No deal could be reached on the GOP’s more expansive plan, which Rep. Jim Steineke had been working on in the final hours of the Assembly’s last planned session day Thursday. Instead, the more limited version passed on a voice vote with nearly no debate.

“I do agree that there is much more work to be done, but I remain skeptical of the work product,” said Pope, the only lawmaker to comment before the vote.

The Assembly worked into the night Thursday on more than 40 bills that were on a packed agenda for its last planned session day. Anything the Assembly doesn’t pass is dead for the year. Bills must pass both the Senate and Assembly in identical form before being sent to the governor.

The fate of the school accountability bill, which has been kicked around for more than three years and went through several previous versions this year, remained up in the air until late afternoon when Steineke confirmed he was dropping his plan.

“It’s a Herculean effort to do something this comprehensive,” Steineke said in an interview.

Instead, the Assembly passed the Senate bill, which simply requires all schools that take public money to have performance data and other information included on report cards for the public to see.

Steineke was pushing for creating sanctions that would lead to closing public schools and kicking private schools out of the taxpayer-subsidized voucher program. But his approach met widespread opposition, including from the Department of Public Instruction and School Choice Wisconsin. Even fellow Republican Rep. Steve Kestell, chairman of the Education Committee, urged his colleagues in an email this week to reject the idea.

Ultimately, Steineke said it was better to move ahead with passing the Senate bill rather than his idea, which wouldn’t have become law anyhow because there wasn’t enough support to pass it in the Senate.

“We obviously wanted a more comprehensive bill,” Steineke said.

He and Sen. Paul Farrow, another conservative Republican, will lead a working group with public and private school advocates and others to come up with another accountability bill next year.

Walker, public and private school representatives, lawmakers and others have been working for three years on an accountability bill but were unable to reach a deal on anything other than requiring the reporting of test results and other demographic information by the 2015 school year.

The private school voucher program was expanded statewide this year, with enrollment outside of Milwaukee and Racine capped at 500 students. That grows to 1,000 next year, and having an accountability measurement will help those arguing to further grow the program.

Democratic opponents of vouchers also want accountability measures so the performance of students in private schools that take taxpayer money can be compared with public schools.